Inés Ibáñez of LSA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology told Newsweek that as global temperatures rise, sugar maples are increasingly at risk—and with them, maple syrup. The lead author of a study analyzing the potential impact of climate change on sugar maples, Ibáñez said as the climate becomes hotter and drier, growth rates for the cherished trees will dwindle.

LSA’s Donald Zak, who co-authored the study, said that because forests absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, it’s important to understand how they will react to a changing climate. “That, in turn, will have a feedback effect on global temperatures,” Zak said.

Read more from Ibáñez and Zak on sugar maples and climate change on Newsweek's website.  

 

Photo by Herson Rodriguez on Unsplash